Friday, November 4, 2011

Research is Fun!

Inspiration can come in many forms. Here I sit talking to a friend that's newly engaged! We're texting back and forth and I'm over the moon excited for her! She's dove into conversations about gowns, location, food.

I'm not sure if it's the time of year for engagements but I plan on finding out! In fact, it's gotten me excited to write about a wedding. That's right, I'm planning on a short story about a woman's wedding day. That one beautiful moment in time! Remembering those feeling I felt on mine!

I love research because you have the opportunity to experience something new or enjoy the old.

As a chick lit/romantic comedy writer I get the constant excuse to watch trash television, buy wedding magazines, the works!

Of course there are moments not everything is peachy. My characters do have their issues. Average divorce rate, worse dates, places where it snows continuously.

In saying that I still very much enjoy every aspect of the research, it's just not peachy for my characters.

What's your latest research project? I love to hear the depth one will go for a story!

28 comments:

I know what you mean, I love doing research as well. You always find the most fascinating facts and ideas as a result. I'm working on a historical set along the Old Silk Road in 1929. What a journey this has been. I also have to say as an erotica writer, I have done some very intriguing research. ;) Have a great weekend and good luck with new project.

I've been researching the 1920s in England lately. That's been fun. Not so fun is trying to untangle the intricacies of the British police system. I'm sure it is no more complicated than the US system, it's just all completely foreign to me, and I have such a hard time wrapping my brain around it. I keep thinking I might have to hand that aspect over to my husband, who has a very organized mind, and just ask him to make a spreadsheet for me!

Oh fun. Research is cool. I do most online, but I did talk with my nephew about karate moves since he was a brown belt. He showed me a few things in slow motion so I could process them and describe a fight scene better.

With my princess and griffin story, I was doing a ton of research on mythological creatures, even made a few up. My nano story is a witch story. So far I haven't had to do any research but I'll probably have to research witches and witchcraft soon.

For my NaNo story I'm using Google Earth to help me understand my physical boundaries and distances in locations for the dystopian version of area my characters live in. I'm also learning about different otherworldly creatures. It's quite interesting.

Oh, man, your research sounds like so much fun! I'm reading Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra and Sarah B. Pomeroy's Women in Hellenistic Egypt for a current project. It's pretty intense, reading about the slaves, workers, and married women. Difficult to imagine, and very easy to just romanticize, imagining them all eating figs and dancing in the desert.

I've been researching the dangers of drinking Listerine. Oh, and the joys of kite flying and cherry farming. Oh, and I need to do more research on driving school rules and regulations. Fun, fun, fun. :)

I do like research, but I like writing more. Right now, I'm writing about teen witches, so I need to get back to my Wicca book. Who knows? Maybe I'll find a whole knew way of living or learn how to do magic in the name of research.